Bacstroms Alchemical Anthology

It is interesting to speculate upon the source of de Chazals information. Bacstrom tells us

that he learned from the Comte that he [the Comte] has received instruction from Paris in
1740. The Comte de St Germain was very active in European countries at that time, and
his immense work for Masonry and in Mystical societies is known and recognized. He
was undoubtedly the last of the great Masters of Alchemy to be seen in Europe, and the
probability is that in 1740 he was actively connected with the Rosicrucian Lodge or
Society, into which de Chazal was introduced in the same manner in which he afterwards
received Bacstrom.
Startling developments were taking place in chemistry when Bacstrom was alive. The
discovery of oxygen by Priestley in 1774 caused chemists to change their opinion on the
theory of the fire element in nature which had been held for thousands of years, and was
the basis upon which all the old fire philosophers had worked. Now, with the
demonstrated isolation of oxygen, the universe had become much more tangible, much
more materialistic. The atomic theory followed in 1808, and Alchemy finally gave place
to modern chemistry, the wise daughter of a foolish mother, in the view of
contemporary chemists.
That Bacstrom was not altogether happy about the new developments is indicated in a
comment he wrote at the time as follows:
if you reason and reflect upon the stupendous effects and power of the corporified fire
or universal agent of God and Nature; the more you consider and reason upon it, the more
you will be convinced that it must be so and can be no otherwise. Depend on it, modern
chemistry will gradually be obliged to return to this truth known in primitive ages.
(1) Omnipresent, invisible, tranquil, unmanifested, universal agent, contained in the flint
and steel and surrounding air, by night as well as by day, filling boundless space, in every
atom of matter and space.
(2) Manifested in light by electrical motion, by the Sun and fixed stars or suns and by
comets, likewise by electrical machines, by the diamond in the dark, by friction, by the
flint and steel, and further, by concentration, manifest in warmth and heat.
(3) By further agitation and circular motion, manifested in burning flame of fire; as we
find by burning glasses and by the flint and steel, but the omnipresent universal agent, the
unmanifested tranquil fire must not be withdrawn but must be admitted to feed or support
the fire, and it must be supplied with a subject to act upon, i.e., fuel, or else it returns to
its first omnipresent state of universality, from when nevertheless, it may be remanifested
by motion, by the electrical machine, or, by the flint and steel, or by any other suitable
motion or action, in straight lines, by friction, or by hammering, or by circular motion.
That principle will reappear everywhere, provided it is not excluded by excluding
atmospheric AIR (and it is manifested in heat, in fire, or in fire and light. This is the vital
principle that animates atmospheric air) in the character of spiritual or incorporeal nitre,
by Sendivogius called the nitre of the philosophers, and by the moderns called oxygen.
When extended in humidity it becomes universal aerial acid and when it meets with a
suitable magnet, it becomes corporified nitre.
Experiments with radioactive substances have indicated to the modern investigators, that

certain metals are undergoing a process of transmutation in nature, which can be

observed. The despised fire in nature of the Alchemists is intruding itself upon the notice
of the moderns. Here is the solar electric force on its way out of manifestation. Chemists
know of the cycle in atmospheric changes which causes nitre to ascend and descend
constantly, thereby forming the food upon which the flora thrives: is it not possible,
probable, and even certain, that, in the light of modern investigation, the metallic
kingdom is subject to the same kind of metamorphosis, although the cycles are much
longer. To the Alchemists the idea was completely rational.